This Autumn not only looks like him, even the two tiger teeth in her mouth are exactly the same. Louis raised his hand to touch his mouth, and his fingertips suddenly shrank back as if they had been burned.
He stared at the photo, feeling as if there was a thorn in his heart, not very painful, but it was very uncomfortable to be stuck there.
In the photo, Autumn was standing with a woman, and he pointed and asked, “Who is this person?”
The director replied, “This is the Elisa I just told you about.”
In the photo, “Elisa” looked thin, smiling at the camera, but the smile did not reach her eyes, which were filled with loneliness. Louis raised his thumb and gently rubbed her face.
That familiar feeling came again.
Louis stared at the photo, and a bizarre thought suddenly arose in his mind: the “Elisa” in the photo and the Elisa he knew were the same person.
People can change their appearance, their voice, but they cannot change their eyes.
He stared into “Elisa’s” eyes, and it felt like they were gazing at each other across an impassable span of time.
Why does his heart ache so much?
“How did she die?” Louis asked.
Mentioning Elisa, the director also felt uneasy. His voice suddenly became hoarse, and he answered with difficulty, “She was burned to death, at the age of only twenty-seven.”
Louis thought of what Hamish had said, asking him to investigate his ex-wife’s name. Louis opened his mouth again and asked, “Do you know who her husband is?”
The director didn’t quite understand the significance of Louis’s questions. He had asked about Autumn, then about Elisa, and now he was asking about Elisa’s husband.
But she still earnestly answered his question, “Hamish, the president of Burns Group.”
When the two of them got married in Bankshire, it caused quite a stir. Everyone said that they were a talented and beautiful couple.
Elisa often donated to orphanages, and the director had a good impression of her. She had thought that Elisa, marrying the person she loved, would be happy for the rest of her life. However, the smile on her face became less and less frequent. Even on her twenty-fourth birthday, facing the blessings from the children, she smiled with a bitter expression.
Elisa had sponsored many orphans, hospitals, and schools. There were no fewer than a hundred children who had been helped by her to go to school or get medical treatment. But despite being such a good person, she had a life full of hardship. Fate had never favored her, and she left this world at the age of twenty-seven.
The director’s eyes reddened as she spoke.
When Louis heard the name “Hamish,” his breath caught, as something quickly flashed through his mind, too fast for him to grasp.
Louis’s gaze paused slightly, but his expression did not change.
Hamish’s deceased wife was called Elisa, and she had a good relationship with Autumn from this orphanage.
She was burned to death three years ago, at the age of only twenty-seven.
What connection could there be between the deceased Elisa and the current Elisa in the photo? Apart from looking somewhat alike and sharing the same name, they had no relation at all.
They were different; their life paths, the people they met, and the things that had happened to them were completely different. The Elisa he knew was twenty-four years old, she was not the daughter of the Powell family, she was just an ordinary girl from the countryside, unmarried, did not know Autumn, and had no relationship with Hamish.
He was numbing himself, but he didn’t know why the image of Elisa looking at the corner of his mouth kept appearing in his mind, her eyes filled with longing, often staring at him in a daze, as if she were looking at someone else, and she would touch his mouth to make him smile more.
What was there to smile about? Was it to smile like Autumn, especially those two tiger teeth that looked exactly the same?
Louis didn’t dare to think about it, nor did he dare to ask further.
Before encountering Elisa, he had always thought that he could handle everything, solve problems, and wouldn’t get stuck in one place, but now, it seemed, just as Hamish had said, he was a coward, lacking the courage to take even a step forward.
Louis took out the photo from the album. “Can you make a copy for me?” he asked.
The director thought for a moment and said, “You can take it. You and Autumn look alike, it’s also fate.”
Not only did he have a connection with Autumn, but he also had a connection with Elisa. The director didn’t pay much attention to entertainment news, but many of the young people helped by the orphanage liked Louis. Whenthey had nothing to do, they would gather and talk.
Lately, the topic of conversation revolved around Louis and Elisa, saying how Louis expressed his love for Elisa on Twitter and how perfect they were together.
One time, the director passed by the lounge and heard “Got it, got it” coming from the room. She thought someone had hit something, but when she pushed the door open, she saw four or five young girls holding their phones, looking blissful.
The director looked at the man in front of her. Even though he looked like Autumn, he was not Autumn. Autumn was not smart, and her language skills were poor. No matter how much she changed, she would not suddenly become an award-winning actor.
“Thank you,” Louis said, taking out a bank card from his wallet. “This is for the children. Please keep it.”
“Charitable donations require formal procedures,” the director said. Many celebrities did charity work sincerely, but some did it to increase their influence, steer public opinion, and offset negative news.
Some celebrities liked to make a big show of their charity work, wanting to tell everyone how much money they had spent and how much good they had done. A quick online search would reveal many such cases.
This also made it easier for fans to criticize them.
This reminded the director of Lila.
So, as the saying goes, money talks. You can’t control human nature, but money can.
“No formalities needed, please take it. The PIN is on the card,” Louis said, placing the card directly on the table before leaving with the photo.
On his way, he met several of his fans. After the initial excitement wore off, they no longer screamed uncontrollably when they saw Louis.
Louis put on his mask as he walked, and by the time he got into his car, he shivered. His body felt cold. He touched his face and felt the chill of the water, only then did he realize that it was raining outside, which explained why he felt so cold.
Louis took out the photo from his pocket and kept looking at it, sometimes looking at the Autumn who resembled him, and sometimes at the “Elisa” who resembled Elisa, until he couldn’t distinguish between them.
It was raining, and the weather was turning cooler. When autumn passed, winter would arrive. The winters in Bankshire were cold, unlike the freezing cold of the north; the cold in the south seeped into the bones slowly from the skin.
He remembered that Elisa was afraid of the cold. He should prepare more warmers for this winter.
Louis drove while lost in thought. It felt like this would make his heartache less. The windshield wipers swayed from side to side.
Where should he go after leaving the orphanage? Why not go and find Elisa? He knew of a small road close to where she was filming. According to the weather forecast, it wasn’t raining there, and it should be warmer than it was here.
The raindrops, the size of beans, splattered on the car roof, creating a loud sound.
The weather was bad on this mountain road. Not only was it raining, but there was also fog. The wipers kept moving, and the visibility on the road was too low. Normally, one would slow down in such a situation, but Louis kept driving forward as if he didn’t feel it.
He was oblivious to everything around him, stepping on the gas, the sound of wind and rain in his ears. When the car picked up speed, the sound seemed like a distant, mournful cry.
Louis absentmindedly stroked the steering wheel, staring ahead, feeling a dull ache spreading from his chest, lingering until his wrists and fingertips felt a strange, detached softness.
Suddenly, a pair of high beams shone into his eyes from around the corner, and Louis suddenly became alert. But it was too late. The tires slipped and the car veered off to the side.
Louis’s head hit the window, the warm sensation spreading from his forehead to his ear and scalp, sending shivers down his spine, layer after layer of goosebumps.
“Revenge and Love” crew, the weather turned gloomy, and Elisa felt a sense of unease. The last time Mimi had an accident, she had a similar premonition, always feeling that something bad was about to happen.
After finishing a scene, Elisa sat in a chair, resting, while the makeup artist touched up her makeup. She drank water and looked at her phone.
As expected, there was movement on Lila’s end. They had started buying a lot of fake followers, and they released photos of Elisa and Asher dining alone at a restaurant. The unethical marketing accounts were experts at creating sensational headlines, and the content varied in terms of indecency. After buying more fake followers and receiving comments, likes, and shares, the attention on this matter skyrocketed.
“Damn, discussing the script? If they’re discussing the script, why would they invite only Elisa to the restaurant and book a private room where nothing can be seen inside?”
“Even if they want to have a private chat, isn’t this a strange way to do it? What time is it now? Elisa still dares to get so close to Asher.”
“Revenge and Love is probably doomed. So many issues before it’s even finished filming. It seems like it will become a big-budget TV show that never airs.”
“Just checked, Revenge and Love’s investment is 420 million. What does that even mean? It’s said that even the boxed meals are of a five-star standard.”
“Elisa is probably in a difficult position, being caught in the middle. After all, Asher is going to sue Lorelei, and Lorelei is from the same company, under the same boss as Elisa, and is a cash cow for the company. Now, Asher has offended Lorelei for her. Elisa probably won’t have an easy time in the company. Unless she breaches the contract, but she probably can’t afford the astronomical penalty for breaching contract, given her recent high income. That’s why I think she sought out Asher for money (facepalm).”
“Could Asher be financially supporting Elisa? They say Elisa has a financial backer, could it be him?”
“Asher is crazy, actually trying to terminate his contract with Lorelei for Elisa. Although it’s true that Lorelei is unprofessional, has mediocre acting skills, poor work capacity, is lazy, has a bad attitude, and doesn’t look as good as a supporting actor, she has money. It’s said that the investors behind the crew are all investing because of her. She has two big backers, and it’s no wonder she casually uses a stand-in on set.”
“What’s wrong with using a stand-in? Do you know how hard she works? How many children in remote villages has she sponsored? She donated ten million last month.”
“I’m talking about her poor acting skills. What does that have to do with her donations?”
“But she has a good personality.”
“Would a person with a good personality take Elisa’s cat away behind her back? Would a person with a good personality say one thing to a colleague’s face and another behind their back?”
“Just a side note, I’m a staff member of Revenge and Love, and I have to clarify that the investors behind Revenge and Love are not for Lorelei, they are for someone else. There was even a fight about this the other day.” This comment quickly disappeared amid the arguments.
“Lorelei not only has a poor personality, but also poor acting skills. Her fans are even worse, like a cult, inciting minors to attack Elisa. She deserves to be in juvenile detention and pay a fine.”
The online debates continued, but it had to be said that Lorelei’s move was indeed well played. Maybe it didn’t completely change the tide, but it did shift the focus away from the previous incident with her fans.
Within the crew, work came to a halt, and people were either discussing the script or using their phones to relieve stress, so these hot topics naturally appeared in the trending searches.
“I was wondering why I didn’t see you with Mr. Kentala at lunch today. Turns out you went for a private meal, and you didn’t even call me,” Osvaldo approached Elisa. “Tell me the truth, what did you and Mr. Kentala do?”
Elisa succinctly replied, “We had lunch.”
“I don’t believe it. The boxed meals on set are so delicious,” Osvaldo looked at Elisa, sighed, and said, “I don’t know if you genuinely don’t know or if you’re pretending not to know. There have been scandals about you and Mr. Kentala circulating online these past two days. Those of us on set know what kind of person you are and what kind of relationship Mr. Kentala has with you. But outsiders don’t know. Any little movement will be blown out of proportion. You should keep your distance from Mr. Kentala until this period is over.”